Retro Round-Up: 9 August 2013

The new Premier League season is almost here... but you won't be interested in that because you're a retro football fan, aren't you? Turn your back on Arsenal, Manchester United and any other clubs that can't even complete a high-profile transfer and wallow in our selection of the past week's top football nostalgia links...

There are few things as timeless as a perfectly executed bicycle kick, and Who Ate All The Pies remembers one in particular. Step forward Trevor Sinclair...

Nothing says 'football nostalgia' like an article about a Brighton and Hove Albion lampshade... and that's precisely what we get over at The Goldstone Wrap...

Football Gaffes Galore has unearthed a special 'Texaco Cup' edition of The Big Match's opening titles from the 1974/75 season. Gotta love that theme tune...

If Shoot! magazine regularly found its way into your possession during your younger days, you won't need us to explain the legend that is 'You Are The Ref.' Now it's back in book form and updated for the modern era, as reviewed brilliantly by Lantern Rouge for The Two Unfortunates...

Our article this week on football kit manufacturers might have had you wondering whether Umbro's diamond motif will ever grace English football again. If that's the case, John Devlin has some good news for you over at True Colours...

KitNerdCollection has added another football shirt to his... er, collection - it's this rarely seen blue Dutch shirt from 1997/98...

Finally, it's time for our eBay Buy of the Week: Rarely will you see such a beautiful and desirable object of football nostalgia - it's this Russian tin-plate table-top football game... and it's starting price is LESS THAN TEN POUNDS...

Retro Round-Up: 2 August 2013

Welcome aboard the good ship Round-Up where once again it's time to take another sail through the calm and pleasant waters of this week's football nostalgia on the internet...

We begin with the happy tale of a young Brighton mascot that didn't get to meet Jimmy Saville, brought to you by The Goldstone Wrap...

A mesmerising piece of skill from Ronaldo at Inter, remembered fondly by Old School Panini...

Steve Mitchell recalls some happy childhood memories of Butlins' soccer coaching camps over at Got, Not Got...

If you heard our podcast on computer football games, you'll also like Who Ate All the Pies' round-up of their own favourite football video games...

A touching tribute to a young player that sadly died this week, courtesy of 8Bit Football...

Something we just missed out on last week, Falcon of Fury is a short film all about one boy's desire to be accepted as a Subbuteo master. It's written by David Quantick and stars Michael Spicer...

eBay Buy of the Week: A classic programme from a curious football match - Watford v Vancouver Whitecaps in 1981, and yours for a starting fee of just 99p (+ postage and packing)...

...and finally, a bonus item which isn't new nostalgia but is certainly right up our street, brought to our attention by Spirit of Mirko - it's 45Football.com, the place where all bad football records go to die...

Retro Random Video: Man United NOT appearing on Top of the Pops

We've seen it so often before, the sight of a football team appearing on Top of the Pops, singing (or rather 'miming') badly to their latest chart hit (if indeed 'hit' is the word we're looking for there).

But in 1983 there was one occasion when a football team were due to appear in the BBC studios to perform their song but didn't. This was because Manchester United, the team in question, were rendered unavailable on account of their participation in the 1983 FA Cup Final replay at Wembley against Brighton & Hove Albion.

What to do? The answer: Simply show a selection of recent Man United goals (and one Brighton one) with their song "Glory Glory Man United" playing in the background. This rendered the 21st May 1983 edition of Top of the Pops (already shortened because the match was shown directly afterwards) nothing more than a musical version of Football Focus. As for the song, it proved to be as unconvincing as Pat Sharp's presenting style, yet it still hauled its way up to number 13 in the charts. If anyone knows how that happened, please get in touch.

So here it is then - Manchester United's non-appearance on Top of the Pops, preceded as it is by Big Country's rendition of 'In a Big Country'.

If you want to get straight to the Man United bit, you'll need to fast forward to 05:06. If, on the other hand, you want to know when the Man United bit starts so you can avoid it, you'll need to hit the stop button at 05:06.

Warning: Video contains images of Pat Sharp pretending to be interested in the FA Cup Final replay.

Retro Round Up - 5 April 2013

Our weekly selection of the best retro football articles from across the internet over the last seven days...


First up, The Goldstone Wrap remembers happier times for John Gregory while a player at the Goldstone Ground...

The Vintage Football Club brings us The French Olympic team that faced Israel in 1976, featuring the future President of UEFA...

There's been many a club badge discarded on the rubbish heap of football history, but Chris Wright of Who Ate All The Pies has unearthed 20 of the best for our viewing pleasure...



Old School Panini immortalises Sir Alex Ferguson’s career in football cards and stickers

Blackburn v Blackburn? Certainly - if the kit man makes a cock-up, as is proven by Got, Not Got...

Craig Easton was inspired by The Football Attic to write about his favourite football kits... check ‘em out here!

..and lest we forget, long before FIFA drew up their plans for world domination there was another World Cup - as remembered by Frankly Mr Spencer...

But that's not all!

By way of a few bonus extras, here's a selection of fine bloggers that have taken up the League of Blogs challenge and written all about their kit and badge designing efforts...

• Wrong Side of the Pond
• The Goldstone Wrap
• World Cup Legends

Retro Round Up - March 22nd

Continuing the weekly look at the best of the net, both Chris and I have been rather busy this week meaning we've hardly had chance to read anything :(

Here are the few things we've managed to spot this week...







The Goldstone Wrap brings us a Football League centenary sticker featuring a man who was playing when the league was formed - Frank Worthington...


If a World Cup was won on the quality of the players’ haircuts, who’d win? Old School Panini offers some suggestions for the 1990 tournament...


Got, Not Got brings us a tremendous long-forgotten Subbuteo advert...


Modern-day Subbuteo falls under the BBC spotlight due to a new project called ‘In The Box’...


Iain Macintosh delightfully picks apart the mess that is the Qatar 2022 World Cup


If you have anything you want to showcase on the Retro Roundup, please get in touch!

Great Tracksuits of Our Time: No.6

The sixth installment in our 'Great Tracksuits' series comes courtesy of Sam Swaffield, co-editor of The Seagull Love Review. A devout Brighton fan, Sam's keen to draw our attention to the apparel worn by his team during one of the high points of their history...

"As a kid growing up in the 90's, all I'd known was Albion kits manufactured by highly suspicious brands. The likes of Ribiero, Super League and Sports Express all had a shot at the stripes, and none of them are in business today.

The 80's though, as we all know, was a golden era. Our Adidas days, between '79 and '86, are viewed by my generation as some sort of kit utopia, where the historic stripes were dropped for an all royal blue dream, the West Germans no doubt unequivical over the phone to Hove; "For you Brighton und Hove Albion, ze stripes are over".

Pictures of the kits are easy to find. The British Caledonian emblazoned sheen of the '80 shirt is a classic, and the red Nobo away shirt of '86 is definitely worth a look. For what I like to call 'Leisure Wear' though, it is a different story.

Official team snaps from '82 show a classic Adidas 2-piece tracky; coaching staff in royal blue trousers and body with white sleeves and customary box fresh Copa Mundials.

For the FA Cup Final in '83 however, Adidas went into overdrive. First a new kit just for the Final (a cotton number with red and white pinstripes, danke schön), and then a new tracksuit for the journey to the team hotel and subsequent round of golf. This classic Albion apparel, a set of which I've never seen apart from in the video below, scrapped the white sleeves for dashing white and red go-faster stripes across the chest and embroidered FA Cup Finallist detail under the badge.


As Albion kit goes, this is the pinnacle. If I had one, I, too, would wear it with royal blue suede Sambas, and saunter around Brighton, king of sports casual, seagull savant, pride of Sussex.

It's worth noting in the video Chris Ramsey looking like Marvin Gaye, Jimmy Case rejecting Adidias and dressing like a crap Scouse Bruce Springsteen, and David Icke, dodging the lizard people, to actually present the piece. Happy days indeed."

Our grateful thanks go to Sam Swaffield for telling us about his 'Great Tracksuit', and don't forget, we'd love you to do the same by dropping us a line. Email us at admin [at] thefootballadmin [dot] com with all your details, and you, too, could see your words appearing in a future 'Great Tracksuits of Our Time' article!